Black
by Sifl-senpai
Summary: Spring arrived with little fanfare, but it arrived all the same. From dark soil comes new growth, new feelings, new beginnings, and the aggregate of every color in the palette being mixed together into one. Shigeo Kageyama's color is black because he hopes for all of these things, believes in all of these things, and endures all of these things.)


Spring arrived.

It started with the trees on the mountain outside the city. Soft green leaves twirled out of the ashen branches of the trees, and then, more boldly, the white and pink flowers of the season came back to rival the clouds in both multitude and glory.

"So," Teruki said, his vibrant jacket disrupting the soft relationship of the pastel trees and the glassy blue sky. "What are you thinking, my friend?"

"Oh, nothing, really." Shigeo halted his footsteps as a single blossom drifted onto his nose. "Master's cat has gotten bigger. So have the tomato plants."

Teruki paused, too, and gave Shigeo a sidelong glance. "But that's because of you, isn't it?"

The petal fluttered off of Shigeo as if it had a mind of its own, and then found a new perch on the top of his sleek hair. "Not really, no." He picked up his feet and continued onwards.

Teruki smiled and followed. "I see."

The pair crossed the street beneath the garish eyes of the stoplights flashing between blue, red, and yellow.

Then, Shigeo said, "Mister Serizawa is closer to getting his degree. He's starting a new year of classes, too, like us."

"That's good."

"Yeah." Another flower joined the first sitting atop Shigeo's head.

The quiet, modest roads of the residential neighborhood widened to welcome more pedestrians and cars as the buildings grew taller and closer in equal measure. Children in black uniforms peppered the sidewalks in greater and greater numbers with each step closer to Salt Middle School that Shigeo and Teruki took. Above them, the sky deepened in color, but Teruki's vibrant jacket kept the attention of the crowd down to the earth where he and Shigeo stood- though Shigeo's own eyes remained fixed on the sidewalk in front of them and Teruki's eyes stuck firmly on Shigeo.

A gaggle of salarymen in deep blues, somber greys, and decisive blacks filed out of the mouth of a subway entrance across the street and joined the flowing crowd of the city. Several of the younger ones fiddled with their ties and peeked down at their phones before navigating deeper into the city. A few blocks later, a line of children in yellow hats holding hands with their big brothers and sisters came around the corner. Another spray of blossoms blew through the city, and Teruki added the few whole flowers to the growing collection holding fast to the black of Shigeo's hair with neither a word nor a movement of anything but his eyes.

"Ritsu is working with Master Reigen sometimes," Shigeo said.

Teruki's eyebrows shot up into his forehead. His teeth gleamed in the morning sun, and then disappeared behind his lips as he opened his mouth. A full, complete laugh rolled up through his body and poured out of his mouth an instant later, spilling out to fill the spaces between the people navigating the streets.

"Oh, really!" Teruki said, and laughed again.

"Yes." Shigeo scanned the next crosswalk as the light gave him permission to journey to the other side. "Dimple helps Ritsu sometimes, too. And Shou, I think, but I don't see him as much."

Teruki snorted. "I see."

"Hm?"

"Little brother has so many people around to help him," Teruki said, the corners of his mouth curling upwards, but never quite reaching his eyes. "Including you."

Shigeo shook his head. The flowers held fast. "Oh, but Ritsu really doesn't need _my_ help- and I am not good at being a teacher, anyway." The boy nodded. "He's very talented and strong."

"So are you," Teruki insisted. "You're the most exceptional person I know."

A twinkle entered Shigeo's dull eyes, like inside of them were a pair of stars that decided to compete with the sun sitting in the daytime sky. He stood up straighter. "It must be true if you say so."

Teruki preened.

"But, then again," Shigeo's stare grew even more pointed, the light glistening off of his irises morphing into smiling half-moons, "You don't know very many people."

Teruki blinked, his shoulders rising and his face flushing a feverish red, and then he laughed. "You wound me, Kageyama."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Teruki's shoulder collided against Shigeo's. "Don't be. You're getting better at being sarcastic."

"I wasn't being sarcastic." Shigeo blinked at Teruki's renewed flush, the crescents of mirth still grinning in his eyes. "But I _was_ teasing you."

Teruki swatted his hip with the bag slung behind his shoulder, and laughed yet again. "You grow more amazing every day, Kageyama."

"I don't know about that."

Teruki grinned. "I do."

Shigeo did smile, then.

The two of them rounded a corner, and the green gate of Salt Middle School stood open and waiting for Shigeo. More pink-white trees waved in the cool spring breeze in tandem with the unassuming and green crepe myrtles. Teruki called more flowers around Shigeo and they sat upon him like the white arms of a galaxy swirling against the vastness of space, or hearts made of paper sitting in a sea of ink.

"That reminds me," Teruki said, halting in his steps and pulling Shigeo's attention away from his school with a flip of his bangs. "Do you notice anything _different_ about me?"

Dark eyes took in Teruki's posture, and the fingers raking through his light hair.

"Your head itches."

Teruki winked. "You're having fun teasing me, aren't you, Kageyama? Careful."

"I'm not teasing you."

This time, Teruki's cheeks matched the petals rather than the scarves on the uniforms of the girls passing by. "Oh, Kageyama, you're too much."

"But you really look like you are being too rough with your wig. I don't get it."

Teruki's color darkened, and he reached out to guide Shigeo's hand to the top of his head. "It's not a wig," he said. "My hair grew back."

"Oh!" Shigeo said. "Is that why it itches?"

"No," Teruki said, his face a precursor to the coming crop of summer's tomatoes. "Don't worry about it." He released Shigeo's hand and planted his own on his hip and looked away. "I hope Dimple doesn't cause any trouble for you at school."

"He won't." Then, "But if he does, don't go flying off by yourself."

"Don't you do that, either," Teruki answered.

"Okay," Shigeo said, his toes redirecting towards his school like the prows of two ships changing course in the middle of the ocean.

"And good luck," Teruki added, "recruiting for your Body Improvement Club. You'll be a good club president- and if I say it, it must be true."

"Yeah. Thank you. Have a good day, too." Shigeo took a few steps forwards, and then turned back to face his friend. His wreath of flowers fell from his head and drifted over to rest like a crown around the place Teruki's hair had sprung back up.

"Don't be late to your school," Shigeo said, and then walked away. The petals in his wake embraced Teruki. When they finally settled down on the concrete, they sat in patterns like the clouds above his head- a rose rabbit on the left leapt over a pale butterfly flying over to a star traced out in pink before the breeze carried them away.

Teruki watched them go, and then looked on as Shigeo joined the steady stream of figures in black and navy blue journeying past the green gate and into the school. He held up a hand and waved at the boy's back with a smile, and then strode back into the city and on the path to his own school.

Spring arrived with little fanfare, but it arrived all the same.


End file.
